Sheriff's Office Hosts Drug Take-Back Day for Prescription Medicine

Lowndes County Resident David Eager said "I brought every unwanted pill that I could think of down here today. So I think it's a great program."

The Lowndes County Sheriff's Office, in partnership with the DEA, hosted its fifth annual prescription drug take back. There were 6 locations in the county and more than 5 thousand sites across the country. The goal: get unused pills and other medicines of the street. The threat of these prescription drugs has become all to real.

Sergeant Jim Griffin of the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office said "roughly 58,000 people die every year in this country from car crashes. And the CDC released preliminary reports indicating that more people died from prescription drug overdoses than in car crashes last year."

As if that wasn't scary enough, according to the Department of Justice, one in six teenagers take prescription medicine to get high or change their mood.

David Eager went on to say "young people are, you know, getting prescription medicines and I think it's awful, I think it's a sad thing and I think we need to get rid of them."

Americans taking part in the last 4 Take-Back days turned in nearly 1.6 million pounds of prescription drugs.There is a permanent drop box for unwanted medications at the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office. No questions will be asked when the public uses it.

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